Guest Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 First, a hello to the community, and a huge thank-you to Harald, the core team, and everyone who has contributed to this great software. I have been using osCommerce on cyberdogg.com since we went live in 12/02 (currently running an 'enhanced' 2.2 November 24, 2002 snapshot). I am somewhat of a professional amateur when it comes to site design & php coding, and would welcome the input of anyone who cares to comment. I am open to thoughts & suggestions on the layout, functionality, and the like. I am also interested in some help developing the site further, as my abilities extend only so far. I am willing to pay for help in this, although my budget is limited at the moment. Also, I hope to be able to share some of what gets developed with the rest of the community. My eventual goal with the store is to be able to match (and perhaps, beat) Amazon.com's shopping engine in terms of usability and automation, at least for my purposes. Here are several of the features I have hopes of integrating into the osC platform: Rich Product Information - I am imagining several pages for each product, e.g. a main summary page, a page of specifications, a page of additional images, etc. Like the reviews feature, the database would store data (associated pictures, links to external reviews, etc.) for each product, and only display the information if it is available. Product parameter search & comparison - Somewhat similar to the way that product attributes work, each category would have a set of parameters that could be defined for it. Products within those categories would ask for (on the backend) and show (on the frontend) the appropriate parameters and their values. For example, the "DVD players" category would have parameters like "Lines of Resolution, Has S-Video Out," etc., and the Foobar DVD-160 would have values of "600, yes", and so on. This would also enable a search on product parameters, like "only show me DVD players with component video outputs under $200," as well as a products comparison feature that displays the parameter values side-by-side for selected products. Intelligent search - I have started experimenting with mnoGosearch, another open-source project. Basically I'd like to integrate a text search feature that can use natural language, and understands misspellings and synonyms. Mirroring and load balancing - I'd like to have my site hosted on additional servers, with a software solution that dynamically routes requests through the fastest server. Supplier and shipper integration - My suppliers have far more products than I could hope to manually enter in a lifetime. They are also web-enabled and have their product information available in a database. I'd like to have osC: 1. Automatically translate product information (name, description, sku, photo) from other sources to populate its database, and map products to categories using a predefined criteria. Where databases are not directly accessible, I'd like to have the capability of crawling through a supplier's website and obtaining the info. 2. Dynamically update supplier price and quantity information - This could be done perhaps once per day, and, if stock quantity on an item is low, availability would be verified before checkout begins. 3. Enable & query multiple suppliers/invetories - Many products will direct-ship from suppliers; some are kept in stock by us. The system would determine where a product is avaiable, and if from multiple sources, present the least expensive alternative. Catalog prices would dynamically reflect changes in supplier pricing according to a margin formula, and large price changes would be flagged. Items which are completely out of stock would not be displayed. 4. Coordinate shipping charge calculation- depending on product availability from suppliers & our inventory, the shipping price is calculated based on a) where the products are shipping from and what method they use; and B) if multiple inventory sources are involved, shipping reflects the sum of shipping the individual packages from their respecive origins. 5. Integrated shipping & supplier ordering - when an order is placed and approved to ship, osC does the footwork of submitting orders to the appropriate suppliers. Where products ship from our inventory, packing slips are generated, and information submitted to our shipper (FedEx) to generate shipping labels and store tracking information. I look forward to hearing from you in the forums, or privately to anthony@cyber..... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajeh Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 I like that Hunt through the Catalog ... was that a contribution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 I like that Hunt through the Catalog ... was that a contribution? Thank you, yes, it's a slight modification to the "main categories" contribution: http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,236 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ajeh Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 And you posted your handy dandy modifications to this where? :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 1, 2003 Share Posted March 1, 2003 And you posted your handy dandy modifications to this where? :D Still a work in progress. Currently, it looks bad at wide screen widths. I want the columns to behave like the columns for the subcategory images here: http://cyberdogg.com/gus/default.php?cPath=48 Meanwhile, I'm happy to send what I have by e-mail to whomever requests it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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